Libertas Omnium Maximus

Federal Republic of Libertas Omnium Maximus Nova Iustitia Respublica
Flag Seal
Motto: “Semper porro, semper supra" "Ever onward, ever upward"
Anthem: “We Shall March”
The modern borders of Libertas Omnium Maximus (Pink)
Capital	Litudinem
Largest	Iustitia City
Official languages	English (spoken and written), Latin (written)
Ethnic groups (2022)	53.3% Valahan 16.1% Khersons 18.4% Iustitian 6.6% Rén 3.2% Arrivée 2.4% Other
Religion (2020)	70% Christianity 57% Protestant 32% IPC 19% Mainline Protestant 6% Evangelical 13% Catholic 8% Minjian 11% no religion 4% Muslim 3% native tribal faiths 4% other
Demonym(s)	Libertas Omnium Maximusian (formal) Maximusian (informal) Max (colloquial, sing.)
Government	Federal Presidential Constitutional Republic
• President	Collin Lestrange
• Vice President	Veronica Harper
• Chancellor	Edward Banks
• State Affairs	William De Boer
Legislature	Senate
• Upper house	Provincial Council
• Lower house	General Assembly
Establishment
• Independence Declared	March 8, 1798
• Iustitian Provisional Government	May 3, 1802
• Fall of Provisional Government	November 18, 1837
• Constitution Ratified	August 3, 1840
Area
• Total	545,650 km2 (210,680 sq mi)
• Water (%)	11.2
Population
• 2023 estimate	60.2 million
• 2020 census	59.5 million
• Density	109/km2 (282.3/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2022 estimate
• Total	3.7 trillion
• Per capita	$61,462
Gini (2020)	37.2 medium
HDI (2020)	.893 very high
Currency	Maximusian Dollar
Time zone	UTC+6 (Maximusian National Time)
Date format	(mm-dd-yyyy)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+97
Internet TLD	.lom

Libertas Omnium Maximus, officially the Federal Republic of Libertas Omnium Maximus or the New Iustitian Commonwealth (Latin: Nova Iustitia Respublica), is a nation comprising fifteen provinces, two territories, and one legation city in south-east Hesperida and northern Caxcana. Libertas Omnium Maximus covers an area of over 210,000 square miles and is home to an estimated 60 million citizens. Situated on the Khersonsic peninsula and its adjacent southern archipelago, the nation borders Zhonrey and Laeral to the north, the Bay of Chaucer to the west, the Promethean Sea to the east, and the Galinios Sea to the south. The nation’s capital is Litudinem and its largest metropolitan area is Iustitia City.

The modern Maximusian government was founded following the Iustitian Civil War, which lasted from 1837 to 1840. The conflict was a popular democratic uprising in opposition to the provisional Iustitian Republic, which was created following the peninsula’s war of independence from Valahandia in 1802. Between the 1850s and 1870s, Maximusian frontiersmen established permanent settlements throughout the arid north-east while innovators and investors developed industry in the south and southwest. The turn of the 20th century saw a massive Maximusian population boom and the nation’s emergence onto the world stage. Libertas Omnium Maximus proved its mettle during the Great War and has been a regional power in Hesperida since.

The nation has a strong and diverse economy, generating an estimated 3.7 trillion in yearly GDP, and boasts a sizeable military and nuclear arsenal. A developed, fiscally healthy country, Libertas Omnium Maximus has a limited social welfare system and offers its citizens a relatively high degree of economic freedom, specifically with regard to property rights and marginal tax rate. Libertas Omnium Maximus has been a member of the League of International Democratic Union Nations since the organization's inception and currently occupies a seat on the Security Council.

Etymology

“Libertas Omnium Maximus” is an improperly declined translation of the phrase, “freedom, the greatest of all things” into Latin. An alternative interpretation of the name, which necessitates the use of the national pre-title, translates to: The Federal Republic of The Greatest Freedom and Unity. The phrase was used throughout the Iustitian Civil War as a revolutionary slogan, but did not gain widespread use as a demonym until the conclusion of the war in 1840. “Libertas Omnium Maximus” was instituted as the country’s official name as one of the provisions of the Maximusian Constitution. Additionally, in order to legitimize their new regime in the eyes of adjacent regional powers, Libertas Omnium Maximus was further designated as Nova Iustitia Respublica, the "New Iustitian Commonwealth," by revolutionary forces, establishing the new government as the direct successor to the Iustitian Republic, though this title sees far less use today.

Officially, citizens of Libertas Omnium Maximus are known as "Libertas Omnium Maximusians," though this demonym has not seen wide adoption in casual conversation due to its length. Instead, the term “Maximusian” is frequently used, even appearing on official documentation in recent years. Particularly in older writing, Maximusians are sometimes referred to collectively as "Iustitians," though, today, that demonym is used only to describe the actual denizens of Iustitia, the island province.

History

Antiquity

Jug found in modern Via Regis dating to 170 BC

Archaeologists have traced the first instances of human activity on the Khersonsic peninsula to around 1200 BC, likely nomadic pastoralists migrating from northern and central Hesperida as a result of famine, climate change, or disease. Evidence of permanent settlement, cultivation of the land, and intensive, sedentary animal husbandry (primarily of sheep and goats) dates back to roughly 300 BC.

By the end of the first millennium AD, several sizable tribal civilizations inhabited the modern-day Maximusian southern isles and coastline, while a limited nomadic presence remained in the peninsula’s harsh interior. The majority of these coastal tribes were reasonably devolved and did not possess particularly advanced construction or agricultural techniques. However, the Slivite culture (occupying the northern part of Iustitia and much of the south peninsular coast) distinguished itself as a politically centralized civilization of accomplished engineers and theologians, having developed limited metallurgical processes and a full pantheon of widely worshiped animistic deities by this time. Though Slivite construction did not prove particularly enduring, the modern-Maximusian city of Via Regis is built on top of the exposed ruins of the ancient Slivite settlement of Vargoya, which was abandoned around 1130 AD during the civilization’s decline.

According to oral tradition and limited archaeological evidence, Shenic raiders attempted a land invasion of the region in 1198, but were either repelled or failed to make landfall due to a major storm. According to ancient tradition, the Shenic raiders angered a cryptid sea monster (often described as a massive Whalefish), who destroyed the entire fleet.

Colonial Era

On March 28, 1447, a small expedition of four ships was dispatched by Cesán III of Valahandia to map the northwest coast of Caxcana. Around four months into their voyage, severe storms forced the expedition to sail north and seek shelter in a bay along the coast of Iustitia. The crew made landfall while waiting for the storm to abate and surveyed the island extensively, noting its advantageous geographic position for facilitating trade, fertile coastal soil, and abundant natural resources. Upon the voyage’s conclusion in November 1447, Eldred Foerer, the expedition leader, advocated for the establishment of a Valahandian colonial presence in south Iustitia. Between 1448 and 1461, more than a dozen additional Valahandian expeditions to Iustitia were completed, mapping the island and establishing contact with natives. Initial encounters between the Valahandian explorers and the island’s native peoples were relatively peaceful. The Hylotikos, then the dominant tribal confederation in southern Iustitia, in particular, showed little trepidation in attempting to communicate—and even trade—with the Valahandian voyagers.

In 1495, the first permanent Valahandian settlement, which would become Iustitia City, was established at the mouth of the Koureli River on the west coast of the isle. Despite widespread crop failure leading to mass-starvation that winter, the colony prevailed, and a number of additional settlements were constructed between 1497 and the early 1500s. Following a series of rudimentary trade agreements brokered with the Hylotikos in the mid-16th century, the colonists began exporting native cotton, olive oil, and mined salt to the Valahandian mainland. In exchange, the Valahandians agreed to outfit Hylotikos soldiers with steel armor, blades, household goods, and, over time, firearms. Though the early arrangements between natives and interlopers were, for the most part, honored by both parties, the ongoing trade of weapons angered the Kestolos, a longtime rival of the Hylotikos. In retaliation (and to secure better armaments), Kestolo warriors began assaulting Valahandian settlements and seizing their wares. The situation rapidly devolved into open conflict, leading to the bloody River War in 1561, which culminated in the near total eradication of the Kestolo civilization.

Allied Hylotikos and Iustitian forces defeat the Kestolos at the Battle of Garrick Marsh.

By the mid 16th century, Valahandian colonial settlements began to sprout up along the mainland’s coast while major Iustitian towns blossomed into wealthy and vibrant trade hubs. In 1529, all Valahandian settlements in the region were incorporated into a formally-chartered Royal Colony of Iustitia in order to combat the land claims of would-be-separatists and other colonial powers. The announcement shocked and upset the Hylotikos and other native tribes, who had generally not contested the construction of Valahandian settlements so long as the kingdom did not make claims to their settled lands. In order to combat the perceived threat to their sovereignty, a rare confederation of native peoples was assembled in 1535, consisting of roughly 70% of Iustitia’s indigenous civilizations. The confederation demanded the dissolution of the Royal Colony and a return to the status quo that had existed for nearly a century. In response, Lord Aidan Prieston, the governor of Iustitia, alongside Edmund Neros, the King of Valahandia’s special colonial liaison, produced the Neros Declaration in 1536. The edict granted native adult males the ability to purchase Valahandian-claimed land, which would grant them Iustitian legal citizenship. Likewise, the male offspring of Valahandian men and native women would be considered citizens upon reaching adulthood. In this way, Prieston and Neros hoped to assimilate the native population organically and without bloodshed. In addition to the declaration, Neros signed an agreement that would prevent Valahandian encroachment on established native settlements in 1538. The confederation was disbanded shortly thereafter and trade between the Valahandians and natives resumed, though the Hylotikos were far more cautious in their subsequent dealings.

Oil painting of a large merchant ship in Iustitia Harbor circa 1660.

Just as many native men and women were abandoning their ancestral lands and heritage in hopes of living a life of affluence in colonial Iustitia, famine and political instability in motherland Valahandia produced an unprecedented influx of immigrants to Iustitia in the 1580s. The colony subsequently flourished and experienced a golden-age of imperial commerce. Even Sentinél, the rocky and foreboding isle east of Iustitia, saw a number of marble and granite quarries constructed along its barren ridges during this time period. Despite the Royal Colony’s increasing prosperity in the mid-17th century, continental Valahandia showed increasing signs of decay and entropy. In addition to a deadly smallpox outbreak in 1661, a series of ill-fated military efforts in eastern Liberalia left the kingdom bankrupt and with a dwindling number of valuable allies by the 1670s. In order to combat the dire financial crisis and shift some of the debt burden to its colonies, a number of steep tariffs were imposed on Iustitian wares being imported to Valahandia. The tariffs sparked outrage in Iustitia, particularly among the lesser nobles of the colony. In response, several privateers were enlisted by a group of these irate nobles to seize vessels importing Valahandian goods. Between 1669 and 1672, more than twenty five vessels were raided by Iustitia-backed privateers. These acts of rebellion, however, were met with a swift Valahandian response. By 1674, a full garrison of Valahandian troops were deployed to temporarily occupy Iustitia City and a small fleet was tasked with tracking down the Iustian privateers. This hunt culminated in the Illien Reef War, which resulted in the sinking of more than a dozen privateer vessels and the summary execution of between seventeen and twenty-two individuals for piracy and sedition. Two nobles suspected of instigating the conspiracy were also arrested, but were released following an official pardon by Duncan Murcaid, then Royal Governor of Iustitia. For nearly three decades, a Valahandian garrison was maintained in Iustitia, increasing hostility between settlers and the Valahandian throne. Upon the death of Governor Murcaid, a tacit supporter of increased Iustitian autonomy, the garrison was withdrawn, inaugurating a period of uneasy peace that would last for nearly a century.

During this period of calm, several expeditions were mounted by the Royal Colony to map the interior of the peninsula that is now mainland Libertas Omnium Maximus. In 1730, explorers encountered the vast Empyrean Mountains, a range deemed impassable by the expedition's leader. Indeed, it would be another 193 years before mountaineers successfully made it to the summit of what the locals referred to as Mount Toupul, the range’s highest peak. The peaks were declared to be the Colony’s official northern border in 1732, formally defining the entirety of Iustitia’s claimed territory for the first time.

Independence from Valahandia

Main article: Iustitian War for Independence

In 1792, a number of Iustitian merchants and colonial nobility gathered in Iustitia City to push for limited independence at the behest of Ross Ashley, Baron of Machlain, a Iustitian magistrate and advocate for total Iustitian autonomy, but they were rebuffed by the colony's royal governor, Sir James Collins. What followed was a series of political maneuvers by pro and anti independence leaders to oust the other side from local power on the island. The two sides clashed in the streets of Iustitia City and nearby towns on a number of occasions over the next three years, resulting in dozens of deaths and the eventual self-imposed exile of Collins, fearing assassination, in 1795. Collins was replaced by Sir Kenneth Hunt, who was somewhat sympathetic to Ashley's cause, but did not support full independence. Hunt worked to mend the growing rift between Iustitian and Valahandian commercial and political interests, but was stonewalled by Ashley and his compatriots. Unknown to Hunt, Steven Brannock, a former Iustitia City garrison captain who had been instrumental in ousting Collins, was recruiting an army of commoners in Via Regis, a large fishing town on the island's north coast, while Ashley and his associates cajoled several neutral and loyalist noblemen into joining their cause. On March 8, 1798, Brannock moved his army of more than two thousand to the governor's manor, demanding Hunt's resignation. That afternoon, twenty eight noblemen and some score of merchants met in the governor's manor to formalize their break from Valahandia.

Valahandian infantrymen care for their wounded following a disastrous march on Stallion Point in 1799.

Jannes IV (often anglicized as "John IV"), the then monarch of Valahandia, refused to recognize Ashley's breakaway state, deploying a naval armada to reclaim Iustitia Island and capture the architects of the revolt. Even as Brannock worked to secure the city of Iustitia, an irregular army loyal to the monarchy, led by Sir Peter Fenwick, began coalescing on the southern end of the island, amassing troops in anticipation of the arrival of John's fleet, which made landfall in late May of that year. The subsequent Valahandian counter attack, led by General William Norton in the early summer of 1798, proved extremely devastating to Iustitian forces, resulting in the retreat of Brannock's army to Via Regis, and giving Fenwick's forces an opportunity to recapture Iustitia City in early September. Gradually, Iustitian forces were pushed out of the isle entirely, spending the winter of 1798-1799 entrenched in modern day Atlas, Passarelle. The following spring, Valahandian forces attempted a number of landings on the mainland, only to sustain heavy fire from a mix of asymmetrical (i.e. irregular) and conventional forces sent by Brannock to stymie their advance. In an effort to retake settlements on the mainland, Norton's forces became spread too thin, suffering devastating losses at the hands of well positioned artillery at Stallion Point in April 1799 and at Reef Beach the next month. Humiliated and battered, Norton's forces quickly withdrew from the mainland; Norton was consequently replaced by General Arthur Dering, though this change of leadership did little to improve the war effort for the Valahandians.

Iustitian forces regrouped and pushed back onto the isle in 1800, fighting the Valahandians to a stalemate, though the Valahandians maintained control of Iustitia City and its harbor. During the temporary lull in fighting, Donald Walton, a merchant and supporter of Iustitian independence, hosted a gathering of pro-independence colonial nobility and dignitaries, resuming the Ashley Committee's work on forging a new revolutionary government and centralizing disparate partisan forces under one banner. Brannock, who commanded the largest and most centralized of these partisan armies, was quick to bend the knee to Walton in an effort to curb desertion, which had grown rampant as the conflict entered it's third year. On August 10, 1800, the Walton Committee produced the Charter of the Republic, a document which established a provisional government, run by a "Council of Patricians" elected by landowners from among Iustitia's ruling elite and guilds. Although some members of the Committee favored a more decentralized government with universal male suffrage, the Charter was adopted without considerable scrutiny under the general understanding that it would be reevaluated after Iustitian independence had been secured.

Relatively unified, pro-independence forces coalesced at Hermit Beach on the northern shore of Iustitia Island in the spring of 1801 to plan a coordinated counteroffensive against Gen. Dering and Sir Fenwick, whose forces were holed up in Iustitia City. In a race to capture Iustitia City before Dering could send word for reinforcements, Brannock engaged in a rapid southward march from Hermit Beach to Poplar Ridge, today a suburb of the city, between September and December of 1801. As the army marched, they faced heavy resistance from entrenched loyalists, but were able to recruit volunteers at a greater rate than they took casualties or experienced desertions. Spending the winter at Poplar Ridge, Brannock began an artillery bombardment campaign of Iustitia City in the unseasonably bitter winter and spring of 1802, forcing the surrender of Dering on May 3, 1802. A consequence of the conditions of Dering's surrender, Iustitia was granted its independence by Murdoch II, John IV's successor, and recognized as a distinct, sovereign state.

Iustitian Republic

During the final years of the war of independence, the Iustitian economy imploded, as civilian merchant craft entering Iustitian waters were frequently impressed into service by both sides of the conflict and inflation rendered the Merég (once a near-universally accepted exchange currency), essentially worthless. With no navy in place, piracy emerged as a growing threat to commerce, as well. In turn, trade, the foundation of the Iustitian economy, collapsed. Iustitia City was no longer a convenient or even safe port for weary merchants to resupply or hawk their wares in. The fledgling Iustitian Republic was flat broke and heavily indebted to foreign powers. In an effort to alleviate the financial crisis and build credit abroad, Nigel Whitlock, the newly elected treasurer of the Council of Iustitia, enacted a series of steep taxes and issued a new currency, the Iustitian dollar, in 1804. Though the dollar was never worth more than a few cents on the Merég, these reforms, paired with an anti-piracy campaign carried out between 1803 and 1807, facilitated the revival of the Iustitian economy. Ross Ashley, though kept at arm's length from the Council for his heterodoxic support of universal male suffrage, was appointed as chief foreign ambassador in 1802 and dispatched to forge diplomatic relationships with existing world powers, Costeno and Opthelia. Ashley proved an adept plenipotentiary, negotiating a number of lasting military and economic pacts which insured the survival of the Iustitian Republic from external threats and further stabilizing the economy from the time of his appointment until his death from illness in 1809.

The Iustitian Republic faced a new domestic threat in the 1810 and 1820s, which would ultimately lead to the First Republic's ruin decades later, namely, a Council which appeared increasingly aloof and detached from the interests of those they represented, who, in turn, demonstrated increasing hostility towards the council and the emergent Iustitian mercantile elite class. By the late 1820s, restrictions on free press and efforts to de-arm commoners were instituted by the Council. Dissident political factions were banned from meeting or running for office in 1826, but this ban was poorly enforced, inadvertently making these underground political parties quite popular by the early 1830s, particularly among young urban craftsmen and artisans. Emboldened by enlightenment and humanist political thought, one group, Partia Democratica, began disseminating anti-provisional government pamphlets in the early 1930s and stockpiling arms. One such pamphlet, On Aristocracy, written in 1833 by Michael Chaucer (future Maximusian President) under the pen-name Calceolarias, laid the groundwork for the eventual Maximusian Constitution (1840).

Civil War and the Maximusian Republic

Main article: Iustitian Civil War

On November 18, 1837, five to six thousand opponents of the provisional government, then led by Solomon Clarke, stormed the Iustitian High Council Building (now the Capital House in Iustitia City), detained all councilors present, and declared a second republic. In a series of show trials held that winter, a number of councilors and business leaders were sentenced to perpetual exile and banished from the new republic. Clarke, who escaped the November 18 raid, assembled a sizable army of provisional forces and counterattacked that spring, seeking to retake Iustitia City and suppress the rebellion. Although Clarke's forces were defeated in the summer of 1838 (and Clarke died on the battlefield), division among republican forces caused increasingly violent infighting and disrupted the state-building process. By autumn of 1839, republican forces had self-sorted into two factions, those supporting the restoration of central government and those supporting the establishment of a loose alliance of municipal, self-governing communes. Eventually, statesmen Francis Green and James Duncan, both members of the former polity, convinced Chaucer, a central figure in the early rebellion who had retreated into the woodwork after Clarke was defeated, to assist them in legitimizing a new central government, this one based in Litudinem, a wealthy trade city on the mainland. Chaucer acquiesced, organizing the First Democratic Assembly in 1840, which consisted of 156 statesmen. The assembly's goal, to create a supreme constitution and a new, federated, democratic government, was realized on August 3 of the same year, when the Maximusian Constitution was ratified by 107 of the 156 present delegates.

The new constitution introduced a federal presidential constitutional republican system, initially consisting of a federal government and eight provinces, Iustitia, Passarelle, Elizabeth, Hampton, Vircetta, Caporolla, Newcastle, and Sentinel. Chaucer was subsequently elected first President of Libertas Omnium Maximus, taking office in January 1841, with Green serving as the new Maximusian Senate's first Chancellor.

The "Great Century"

Historians of Maximusian history often refer to the 100-year-period extending from the decades after the establishment of the modern Republic to the outbreak of the Great War, roughly 1860-1960, as the "Great Century," a time of tremendous growth, dynamism, innovation, social reform, and expansion for the Maximusian state. The so-called "Great Century" witnessed a small republic quintuple in size, burgeon tenfold in population, and evolve from a withered and politically unstable mercantile republic into a regional power and international nexus for commerce and industry. In the years following the establishment of the second (Maximusian) republic, the nation experienced a period of rapid industrialization and northern expansion, racing homesteaders from Laeral to settle the peninsula's rugged north. As the Maximusian interior became increasingly populous and culturally distinct from settled coastal regions, the nation faced its first existential political crisis, a push for confederation, for new northern territories to be admitted not as additional provinces within the Maximusian Republic, but as satellite states within a broader proposed Iustitian confederacy. While this proposal gained significant support among settlers and some coastal voters, culminating in the election of pro-Confederation candidate Steven Hunt in 1868, the viability of a Iustitian confederation was quickly called into question by an external force, Laeral. In 1875, tensions between Laeralite and Maximusian settlers reached a boiling point when a coalition of Laeralite homesteaders formed the breakaway state of Lematre. Laeral mobilized seven provincial militias to secure the Lematre territorial claim, leading to the outbreak of war. The War of the Seven Provinces, as the conflict came to be known, gave the Maximusian federal government an opportunity to flex its muscles, reinforcing northern Maximusian irregular units in Brissac, Lematre, and modern Winfield with professionally trained soldiers from the south. The small Maximusian Navy blockaded port cities of peninsular Laeral with some difficulty, cutting off supplies and troops from the mainland. By 1877, Maximusian federal forces overwhelmed Laeralite provincial armies and irregulars, leading to the near half century occupation of Lematre and Brissac provinces by the Maximusian Republic. The decisive Maximusian victory contributed to a growing sense of national pride and shared understanding of Maximusian identity. Additionally, as part of the federal government's effort to recruit troops to fight in the conflict against Laeral, veteran pensions were offered to enlistees for the first time. These pensions, which began paying out in 1900, marked the earliest form of government benefits issued by the Republic.

Legionite (red) and Maximusian (navy blue) forces battle with Shao rebels outside of Shizizhen during the Golden Flag Rebellion.

William Baker, champion of early progressive reforms. Photo circa 1902.

With a definitive victory against a formidable neighbor in the rearview mirror, a sense of common Maximusian national identity emerged, bolstered as the nation's disparate cities were drawn together by an extensive railroad network constructed in the late 1870s and early 1880s. As the 19th century drew to a close, the Maximusian Republic enjoyed significant economic growth in the form of tin and copper mines in northern Peoria, oil reservoirs discovered in Secoteau, and favorable trade agreements with northern-Caxcanan states (often through quite assertive diplomacy). Though many fortunes in Iustitia City, Chester, and Perra were made at the turn of the century—and the nation's coffers were considerably engorged—more, still, grew increasingly incensed by the perceived entanglement between business interests and theoretically impartial civil servants. To many, the Maximusian Republic had abandoned its founding ethics, popular sovereignty and universal suffrage, in favor of lining the pockets of shipping tycoons and bankers in Iustitia. After a major stevedore strike was brutally repressed by the Hopley administration in 1899, public support for existing laissez-faire trade and alleged elitist policies began to dry up. William Baker, elected in 1900 alongside an majority progressive Senate, worked to codify and expand worker's rights, introducing a sweeping round of federal-level industrial regulations and labor reforms. In stark contrast to the ongoing internal reform, however, the Maximusian Republic fought hard to maintain its commercial influence abroad as the 20th century dawned. In 1903, Maximusian merchants were expelled from Ziyou and other major Taidao port cities by Shao nationalists looking to sever what they considered to be exploitative ties with a number of regional powers. In response, the Maximusian Republic once again flexed its muscles in a display of military might, joining a contingent of other regional powers to suppress the native rebellion. The Republic and its allies quashed the rebellion by 1905, seizing the Taidao region. Ziyou was granted to the Maximusians as an overseas dependency, and remains under Maximusian control as a legation city to this day.

Progressive reforms continued to reshape the nation through the late 1920s, particularly during the presidency of Lawrence Crofter, who successfully pushed to expand universal suffrage to women (codified in 1926) and expanded retirement pensions. By the late 1920s, however, the tide began to turn against Crofter's administration. Between 1925 and 1927, the Maximusian Republic fought and subsequently lost a disastrous rematch campaign against Laeral over territory seized during the War of Seven Provinces. As a result, valuable land in what is today the Brissac and Lematre provinces were returned to Laeral. To make maters worse, the Maximusian economy took a turn for the worst as the decade wound down. In years to follow, conservatives successfully painted Crofter as a milquetoast ideologue and his progressive reforms as foolhardy and ill-conceived missteps which were eroding the economy and the nation's reputation among allies. Whether vocalized conservative concerns were legitimate or not, the 1930s saw the splintering of the Progressive Party and the beginning of a long identity crisis among center-left Maximusian statesmen which prevented them from retaking the presidency or holding a plurality in the Senate until the late 1970s. In their place, two center-right parties, the neoliberal National Conservatives and more laissez-faire oriented Capitalists, dominated the political realm for the next two and a half decades. The economy initially rebounded, largely driven by a decreased reliance on heavy industry (except in northern provinces) and the boom of post-industrial services in outer-core Maximusian cities such as Ashford Down and Redbury. Although the economy roared back to life during the 1940s, the Maximusian armed services were allowed to atrophy in lieu of increased taxation, a decision which nearly proved fatal to the entire nation in the early 1960s.

In the late 1950s, as tensions between world powers approached their boiling point, the Maximusian Republic found itself in a hazardous state of diplomatic purgatory. Right and center-right leaders were unwilling to align or associate with the growing cohort of openly socialist powers, such as UCR Lauchenoiria, the Novella Islands, or Gramontist Laeral, but the Maximusian Republic was equally unable to foster many meaningful alliances on the other side of the political spectrum. During his short presidency, David Stevenson, despite personally opposing populism, ultra-nationalism, and the policies implemented by his Slokaisian contemporary, Juan Costa, worked to strengthen ties with Slokais Islands and even sought to mend fences with many of the imperial powers of Caxcana. In doing so, Stevenson irreparably eroded his political credibility (though his legacy was rehabilitated in the 1980s) and paved the way for a left-aligned successor, Oliver Milton, to win the 1960 presidential election. Capitalizing on his own popularity as the Governor of Elizabeth and popular resentment for authoritarian ultranationalist regimes abroad, Milton, a closeted admirer of René Gramont, took office in 1961 and forever altered the trajectory of his country. Despite his broad promises to significantly expand the existing Maximusian welfare state and bring unprecedented economic opportunities to rural regions of the Republic (which he called the Magna Republica reforms), the Daryan invasion of the Galinios Sea just six months after Milton took office forced the President to quickly pivot from reformer to wartime leader.

Great War

As early as the Stevenson administration, intelligence experts reached the frightening conclusion that reconciliation with Darya under Shivnath Nishad's regime would be impossible, and that the Maximusian Republic was a likely target for invasion by the Empire. In January 1961, Maximusian spies confirmed that Darya was amassing troops, planning an amphibious landing as early as the that summer. In response to this intelligence, the nation rushed to militarize, but had difficulty doing so due thanks to an underfunded, underequipped military and a population with little taste for war. After taking office, Milton repositioned the nation's only operably aircraft carrier, MS Bastion, from the Albarine to the Galinios Sea and began petitioning the Senate to enact a sweeping draft. A draft of 250,000 was ultimately approved on August 1. The next day, Darya declared war and moved their navy into the Galinios Sea. Initially standing on their own as other democratic-aligned powers faced off against allied forces of the Pact of Three Emperors, Libertas Omnium Maximus suffered heavy losses during the protracted naval confrontation to follow, losing Bastion and a number of other craft to the Daryan onslaught, but Maximusian naval infantry successfully prevented Daryan amphibious landings from establishing a significant foothold on any major Maximusian outlying islands. In May of 1962, Daryan forces failed to capture the coastal Bjeorgite city of Eurich and subsequently withdrew from Maximusian sovereign waters, though no armistice was negotiated. As Darya, repelled-but-undeterred, turned its sights on Legionas, the decimated Maximusian navy could only standby and watch helplessly as their southern ally was invaded in October 1962.

In the months following the failed Daryan invasion, Milton redoubled the nation's militarization effort, leasing scores of vacant factories and converting them to ammunition, artillery, and tank manufacturing plants. A number of civilian freighters were also hastily retrofitted with 130mm guns, antiaircraft cannons, and torpedo tubes, bolstering the weakened Maximusian navy in the event of another Daryan assault before newly-commissioned cruisers and destroyers could be launched. Fearing that the Maximusian isles would soon fall into the hands of a Pact nation, thousands of durable, modular riffles were moved to hidden caches across the archipelago, to be used by irregular resistance forces in the event of a successful invasion. However, this secondary invasion never came. By early 1963, Darya and its ally, Slokais Islands, had already refocused their sights on pacifying Haesan. Later that year, a passionate debate ensued within the Maximusian senate on what the country's next course of action should be. Conservative leadership, noting the longstanding alliance between Libertas Omnium Maximus and Legionas, were insistent on launching a campaign to liberate the Kingdom of Legionas, while Progressives favored a counteroffensive in the Albarine to liberate Haesan and topple the ultranationalist Costa regime in Slokais. Ultimately, the progressives won out, and, in November of 1963, Maximusian troops launched an amphibious assault on the Haesanite Southern Maritimes.

Forging an alliance with Laeral, much to the chagrin of conservatives, Maximusian forces moved on mainland Haesan after securing Sarena, ending the Slokaisian occupation and administering the newly-established provisional government of Haesan, which was led by Henri Lagarde. Simultaneously, the Milton administration, alongside other Coalition governments, began outfitting insurgents and rebel factions in Slokais as they attempted to oust dictator Juan Costa from power. In 1966, Maximusian troops were deployed alongside a massive contingent of allied Coalition forces to Slokais Islands, securing Costa's withdrawal from the conflict and eventual demise.

Geography

East coast of Iustitia Island.

Mount Icarus (10,468 ft) in the Ariene Mountains.

The nation of Libertas Omnium Maximus is situated on the Lygisepoline peninsula and the surrounding southern archipelago of around 60 inhabited islands, the majority of which are less than 20 km². The two largest islands in this archipelago, Sentinél and Iustitia, occupy a total area of 77,211 km², while the peninsula occupies a total area of 466,915 km², making it the fourth largest country in Hesperida by landmass. The highest point in the nation is the summit of Toupoul (Mt. Triton) at 13,963 ft. (4,256 m), located in the Empyrean Mountains in Peoria Province, which defines the Maximusian Republic's northern continental border. A second range, the Ariene Mountains, run east-west across the nation through Vircetta, Elizabeth, and Bressel provinces, serving as the headwaters for the second and third longest rivers in the nation, the Lyne and Boenecca, respectively. The longest river in the nation, the Cambria, winds through the country, originating in the Empyreans, running around 1,400 km south, terminating in the northern Galinios Sea. Latitudinally, the nation is situated between 9° and 26° North; longitudinally between 37° and 46° East. Most of the Maximusian population is concentrated in the nation's southern and western coastal regions and bucolic hill country, as the Maximusian interior is largely arid, rugged, and agriculturally unproductive. In addition to the archipelago, the Maximusian mainland is often subdivided into four geographic regions: the northern plains, which span much of the nation's northeast; the hill country, rolling, lightly forested, and dotted with farms and small towns; the highlands, a densely forested region in the foothills of the Ariene Mountains; and the riverlands, coastal areas of low elevation along the south coast. The nation is surrounded by four seas, the Bay of Chaucer, to the west, the Galinios Sea, to the south, and the Albarine and Promethean seas, to the north and east, respectively.

Climate

The nation's continental south (including Elizabeth, Hampton, Scapardie provinces) experiences an anomalously mild, humid subtropical (Cfa) climate, while the Maximusian isles and western coastal regions (Passarelle, Caporolla) experience a more tropical climate (Af). The Maximusian interior features a hot semi-arid climate (BSh) and the northern, coastal Maximusian regions are characterized by a slightly cooler, marine climate (Cfb). Throughout the nation, winter temperatures do not regularly fall below 0 °C (32 °F), while summer temperatures frequently exceed 22 °C (72 °F). Aside from the arid north, Libertas Omnium Maximus experiences quite pleasant temperatures for most of the year. Summers are warm, but not searing; winters are cool, but rarely bitter cold.

The atlas cedar (cedrus atlantica) is a national symbol, endemic to nearly all of the vast nation's many ecosystems.

Biodiversity

The Illien Reef represents the most concentrated source of biodiversity in the nation.

Libertas Omnium Maximus is extremely biodiverse due to its size and varied climate. Particularly in the urbanized south, however, habitat loss and overhunting has resulted in the eradication or near-eradication of many of the peninsula's endemic wildlife populations, including a subspecies of alligator (hunted to regional extinction in the 1880s) and a number of wild cats species. The Shalestone dolphin, a species of river dolphin once thought to have been altogether pushed out of the rivers of southern Libertas Omnium Maximus by habitat degradation, has been successfully reintroduced in recent years. Much of the nation's west is densely forested with conifers including cedar, cypress, and pine trees. Brown bears and bobcats, along with hawks and falcons, serve as the apex terrestrial predators in much of the nation.

The Maximusian Republic is also home to one of the most biodiverse marine ecosystems on the planet. The Illien Reef, which extends from northern Iustitia Island to the shallows of continental Libertas Omnium Maximus, is said to house around 1,300 distinct species of aquatic life. The oldest coral elements of the reef are suspected to be over 5,000 years old and attract hundreds of thousands of ecotourists each year.

Politics

Law and Order

Common law is the basis for the Maximusian legal system, based on court decisions and precedent, while the Maximusian Constitution serves as the supreme law of the land. Basic principles for rule of law have their origin in the Old Codes, dating to fifteenth century Valahandia. The Maximusian Republic has a dual-court system, with distinct provincial and federal-level courts, which hear cases relating to provincial and federal law, respectively. Federal cases can be appealed to courts of appeals, and provinces have their own appellate systems, while the terminal court for both federal and provincial cases is the Maximusian High Court (also known as the Summary Court). The High Court also hears cases between provinces and the impeachment of certain high level federal offices, including the presidency. The Maximusian judicial system utilizes layman juries, but only for criminal cases of a certain severity, particularly cases with a prison sentence associated with conviction. In appellate court, cases are adjudicated by the presiding judge or tribunal of judges, and the High Court is presided over by a panel of twelve judges. Unanimity among jurors is always required to convict, and plurality to overturn a conviction. The Maximusian judicial system is adversarial, so judges are meant to be disentangled from the investigation process and presentation of arguments during the hearing of the case, instead serving as impartial moderators.

Certain "universal" rights are elucidated in the Maximusian Constitution, including freedoms of religion and expression and fair treatment under the law, though these rights are worded as negative rights, and are generally interpreted as protections from certain state actions, rather than guarantees of services provided by the government. The only positive rights enumerated in the constitution are the guarantee of universal (initially male) suffrage and the right to legal counsel, though other positive rights have been guaranteed by various statutes.

Government

Libertas Omnium Maximus is a constitutional presidential federal republic of fifteen provinces, one federal territory, and one autonomous holding, Bjeorg, which was formally established in 1992 in the aftermath of the 1991 Bjeorg Conflict. All fifteen provinces were incorporated between 1841 and 1893. The nation is a representative democracy and is perceived to have little corruption. Libertas Omnium Maximus has a federal level legislature, court system, and executive branch, headed by the President. The federal legislature, called the Senate, is bicameral, subdivided into two chambers, the Provincial Council and General Assembly. The Council has 30 voting seats and one observer seat (that of Bjeorg, though they have never sent a representative), two representatives from each province, a senior and junior member.

Front façade of the Maximusian Senate building in Litudinem at dusk

The General Assembly has 202 seats, though this number is adjusted at the end of each presidential term. Each Populus member represents a provincial district (representing about 250,000-350,000 citizens), the largest internal subdivision of federal provinces. The head of the Assembly is the Chancellor, who is tasked with setting and maintaining the legislative agenda for the duration of their term. The Assembly has significantly more legislative power than the Provincial Council, which mostly rubberstamps and/or vetoes legislation introduced by the Assembly, and handles some executive functions such as the ratification of treaties and nascent federal agencies, as well as approving certain executive office appointments. Only the Provincial Council has the ability to impeach the president, in a process that is overseen by the High Court. Councilors are elected to nonrenewable eight year long terms (extended from six to eight years in 1950). Representatives to the Assembly, however, are elected every four years, and may serve unlimited terms, a rule which has increasingly come under scrutiny. The longest serving member of the Assembly, George Sharp, was first elected in 1968 and died in office in 2022 at the age of 89. Assembly members are appointed by direct popular election of their constituent districts, while Councilors are not elected at all, instead appointed by the provincial legislatures of their respective provinces.

The president is elected by the provincial legislatures of all fifteen provinces (each legislature has between two and 48 votes, depending on the province's population), though these legislatures traditionally determine how they cast votes proportionate to candidate's performances across the provincial federal districts in the public presidential election (which is essentially binding by custom, not statute). The Maximusian President is considered the chief executive of all federal agencies, supreme commander of all armed forces, and the nation's formal head of state and government. When the presidency was formed in 1840, the position was more of a figurehead than a proper executive, but the position has grown substantially in influence over decades of executive aggrandizement, particularly since the Milton administration from 1961 to 1969. Presidents serve four year terms and are not constrained by a term limit, however, no Maximusian President has successfully been reelected more than once, though a number have run for a third term. In Libertas Omnium Maximus vernacular, the phrase "running for a third term" is often used allegorically to describe an extraordinarily ill-advised decision.

Elections are traditionally held on September 7, in honor and remembrance of the final major battle of the Iustitian Civil War. Incumbent candidates officially take office on January 1 of the next year at noon. The next federal election will be on September 7, 2024.

Foreign Relations and Military

Libertas Omnium Maximus spends about $38 billion yearly on its military and is considered a regional great power, capable of exerting considerable diplomatic influence on neighboring countries, but is not a global hegemon. Since the Great War, Libertas Omnium Maximus has maintained close diplomatic and economic ties with many coalition nations, particularly the Albarine seaboard nations, Haesan, Laeral, and the Slokais Islands. Following the failed Daryan-Slokaisian invasion of Haesan in 1963, Libertas Omnium Maximus was tasked with administering the reconstruction of the nation for a number of years, maintaing unique cultural and political ties to the present day as a result of the relationship. Maximusian intervention during the Second Lauchenoirian Civil War in 2018 was highly controversial, and led to the nation being fined $150 million for the alleged slaying of Kerlian non-combatant medical officers and significant infrastructure damage to Carville, Lauchenoiria. From January 4 to April 1, 2020, Libertas Omnium Maximus was involved in the intervention in Vulkaria, though public support for Maximusian involvement in the conflict rapidly collapsed. Following the withdrawal of troops from Vulkaria, Maximusian officials swore to never again involve the nation in another "forever war". Despite ongoing unrest in eastern Caxcana, Libertas Omnium Maximus has maintained substantial economic ties with Xiomera, simultaneously recognizing the autonomy of Huenya.

Economy

Arsenal Plaza, part of the Iustitia City financial district

A vineyard in northern Hampton Province

Libertas Omnium Maximus is a developed nation with a high standard of living and an advanced economy worth $3.7 trillion (GDP PPP). The nation’s unemployment rate stands at around 7.5% as of 2022, and has been steadily decreasing since the Maximusian debt crisis in 2011. The nation also has large manufacturing, tourism, and financial services sectors. As of 2022, Libertas Omnium Maximus is one of the world’s largest exporters of olives and apricots, citrus fruit, and a major exporter of high-grade cotton. Since its inception as a merchant trade hub in the 16th century, maritime shipping remains a core factor of the Maximusian economy. Two of the world's largest shipping conglomerates, MNSC (Maximusian National Shipping Corporation) and ODL Consolidated, are based out of Iustitia City, the oldest and largest port city in the nation. The country’s north eastern coastal region is known as a major regional manufacturing hub, though a majority of produced wares are sold domestically. The nation tends to import inferior goods, plastics, and textiles, while focusing their manufacturing on high-grade machine parts, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and fine instruments. Libertas Omnium Maximus is home to a number of major corporations, including, Bailey Automotive Works, an internationally-recognized luxury car brand, and Andromeda Softworks, a major information technologies company. Historically, Libertas Omnium Maximus was a major exporter of salt and marble, and remains a significant exporter to this day. Libertas Omnium Maximus has a rich tradition of viticulture. The nation's south-central hill country in Hampton and Scapardie provinces are said to produce some of the world's finest wine, which is exported worldwide. Major trade partners include Haesan, Laeral, Eiria, Wosteaque, Legionas, Shen, Zamastan, and Xiomera. Libertas Omnium Maximus is a member-nation of the Global Development Investment Bank. Libertas Omnium Maximus ran a $108 billion trade deficit in 2022.

Energy

Maximusian energy demands are met by a combination of renewable and non-renewable sources. An estimated 67% of the nation’s energy production comes from natural gas and petroleum, around one tenth of which is imported. The remaining 23% of energy production comes from renewable or green sources, primarily nuclear energy. Nuclear energy was provided exclusively by state-run plants until 2018, when independent firms were greenlit to begin constructing their own privately-operated plants. The first private plant, King's Bay Energy, was powered on in 2021 without incident. Due to concerns of disrupting established bird migration routes and other ecological considerations, Libertas Omnium Maximus does not make extensive use of wind farms. Since the early 2010s, single family households have increasingly been constructed with solar panel apparatuses mounted to the roofs, particularly in high-UV regions.

Transportation

Infrastructure primarily supports automobile travel in much of the nation, although rail lines connect most major settlements. Since the 1970s, a highspeed passenger rail line to connect Litudinem, Holland, and Lumeniola has been in the works, though no ground has been broken on the project to date, likely due to budgetary constraints and political gridlock. A superhighway, the Profectus Motorway, runs nearly 1300 km from Lumeniola to Perra and connect most of the major Maximusian interior cities. Libertas Omnium Maximus's largest commercial port is the Port of Iustitia in Iustitia City, processing around 16 million containers each year.

Demographics

Demographic breakdown of Libertas Omnium Maximus as of 2020.

Population density map of the 202 Maximusian federal districts; green represents rural districts (<299 people/sq mi), blue represents suburban or municipal districts (300-999 people/sq mi), purple represents urban districts (>1000 people/sq mi).

A 2020 domestic census recorded the Maximusian population at 59,493,272 residents, making the nation the fifth most populous in Hesperida. The population is estimated to break 61 million by the end of 2024. The average birthrate in Libertas Omnium Maximus is 1.9 children per woman, though this figure varies widely between federal provinces. Cennabaille has the highest birthrate, at 2.2 children per woman, while Passarelle has the lowest birthrate, at 1.5 children per woman.

Nearly 88% of the Maximusian population is ethnically Valahan, Khersons, or Combonaires, a colloquial name for the mixed "Iustitian" ethnicity. About 7% of the Maximusian population is of Rén ethnicity, due to the country's close proximity to Rén majority nations such as Laeral and Zhonrey. Most major Rén (and, to a lesser extent, Arrivée) immigration to Libertas Omnium Maximus occurred between the mid 19th century and 1926. The Maximusian immigration system accepts only a limited number of immigrants each year and the path to citizenship is rigorous. Since 2017, Maximusian immigration policy has focused on attracting well educated immigrants with applicable technical skills, primarily from other developed nations, rather than unskilled laborers, though asylum seekers, regardless of vocation, are frequently admitted.

The national language of Libertas Omnium Maximus, formally declared in 1875, is English. In order to preserve the original intent of legal documents, all federal legislation is recorded in Latin, as are all legally-binding contracts, wills, testaments, affidavits, and other judicial measures. Native languages are frequently spoken in ethnic enclaves across the nation, though this practice is often socially discouraged. About 98% of Maximusians are fluent English speakers and immigrants are required to learn English as part of the naturalization process. As a result of territorial gains during the Great Frontier War, a large French-speaking diaspora exists in the northernmost provinces of the Maximusian Republic.

Although there is no official Maximusian state-religion, around 32% of Maximusians self-identified as being affiliated with the Iustitia Protestant Chruch, while another 19% classified themselves as "mainline Protestant" and 6% as "evangelical Protestant." Around 13% of Maximusians are Catholic, and 8% are members of the Minjian Faith tradition. Although some Khersonsic tribal religious have survived into the modern day, most Khersons converted to Christianity in the 18th century. Only 3% of Maximusians identify as adherents to a native tribal religion. Likely due to cultural stigma surrounding non-religiousness, only 11% of Maximusians surveyed for the 2020 census reported being atheist or agnostic, but the true number is estimated to be closer to 20% of the Maximusian population.

The average life expectancy in Libertas Omnium Maximus is 78.8 years for males and 82.7 years for females. This relatively high average has been attributed to low obesity rates—Maximusian cuisine tends to be high in protein and low in trans fats—and a climate favorable for outdoor exercise most most months of the year.

Largest Cities

Rank	City	Population	Province
1	Iustitia City	2,803,956	Iustitia
2	Litudinem	2,705,693	Passarelle
3	West Lumeniola	767,211	Elizabeth
4	East Lumeniola	535,356	Hampton
5	Saint Augustine	391,870	Saint Augustine
6	Papillonea	381,121	Cennabaile
7	Perra	329,919	Peoria
8	Ashford Downs	261,437	Vircetta
9	Westfield	243,167	Caporolla
10	Chester	202,613	Bressel

Culture

Libertas Omnium Maximus is a pluralistic society; a fusion of Valahandian and native Khersonsic cultural observances and traditions. Maximusians generally value hard work, family, and self sacrifice, though studies indicate that younger generations are becoming increasingly materialistic and less inclined towards familial ties. Anti-elitism, sometimes lampooned as anti-intellectualism, has always been a predominant tenant of Maximusian culture, though Maximusians are great innovators. Because around 70% of households are Christian, the Christian worldview and occidental moral tradition permeates Maximusian culture. Multigenerational homes are abundant, particularly in rural parts of the nation and in middle-income urban areas, and the elderly frequently live with their adult children. Libertas Omnium Maximus is a progressive nation, though generally not as socially progressive as neighboring developed nations. Homosexuality and interracial marriages are neither illegal nor restricted, though open homosexuals sometimes face backlash in conservative regions of the nation. Genetic admixture, or ethnically mixed households are commonplace, and have been since the Neros Declaration in 1536. Around 1-in-3 Maximusian marriages end in divorce, though people who have already been divorced are much more likely to be divorced a second time, slightly inflating this statistic. There is no legal acknowledgement of transgenderism, and Maximusian citizens cannot change their sex on official documentation. The age of majority in Libertas Omnium Maximus is 18 years of age. Consuming alcohol is not prohibited in the Maximusian Republic—the nation is even considered to have a robust drinking culture—however, those under the age of majority generally cannot purchase alcohol for themselves. Few exceptions exist, generally for religious or ceremonial purposes.

Entertainment and Media

The Maximusian Republic is an exporter of media culture, particularly, film. Since the 1930s and '40s, Lumeniola has been home to many of the most commercially successful movie studios in the world. Once known for arthouse and surrealist films in the 1960s and early '70s, the Maximusian film industry fell into decline and became synonymous with made-for-television and low-budget, often gratuitously violent or risqué, films, in the 1980s. These inexpensive, mass-market movies proved the only financially viable cinema in the nation for a short while, but gradually gave way to more sophisticated, high budget films. Modern Maximusian films are often lengthy period dramas or epics, featuring classically trained actors, elaborate wardrobes and set pieces, and orchestral scores.

Influenced by multiple cultures and centuries of tradition, Maximusians engage with many forms of music, from folk to symphony to pop. Since the Republic's inception in the mid 19th century, it has been associated with lengthy concerto and sonata compositions. Many Maximusians enjoy attending the opera, which, too, gained a foothold in the nation in the late 19th century, though most domestic opera is of foreign origin, performed by foreign troupes. Native Maximusian operas, such as The Last Praetorian, composed by George B. Cholmondeley in 1919, often feature syncretic influence from folk music or, less frequently, jazz. In the late 1960s, a number of Maximusian acts, such as Seraphim and Hippocampus, became involved in the nascent progressive rocks scene, popularizing electronic keyboard-heavy sounds in the nation, which influenced the later popularization of disco and electronic/house music in subsequent decades in Libertas Omnium Maximus. Folk music in Libertas Omnium Maximus is known for its use of harmonized vocals and instruments such as the gaita (miniature bagpipes) and fiddle. Folk songs are often simple, short ballads featuring agrarian and rustic themes. These traditional folk elements influence modern popular contemporary and rock acts in the nation.

Cuisine

Like most elements of Maximusian culture, cuisine in the Maximusian Republic is a fusion of many different culinary traditions. Even factoring significant regional and ethnic variance, Maximusian cuisine can be fairly characterized by a heavy use of local seafood, wood-fired grilling, and creamy or tangy—rather than spicy—sauces. Particularly in the nation's more populous south, beef and pork are consumed in far smaller quantities than shellfish, fish, goat, and lamb, constituting only a very small portion of the overall Maximusian diet. Millet, rice, and wheat are the most common cereal grains used in Maximusian cuisine. Common produce found in Maximusian dishes includes olives, grapes, dates, lemons, apples, apricots, and oranges.

Sports

Association football (soccer) is the most popular sport to spectate in Libertas Omnium Maximus, followed by baseball. The Maximusian League of Association Football and the Maximusian Professional Baseball Federation are the governing bodies in the nation, respectively, for the professional leagues of these sports. Recreational SCUBA diving and snorkeling are both popular pastimes in southern Libertas Omnium Maximus, and the Illien Reef is considered one of the most vibrant dive spots in continental Hesperida. Libertas Omnium Maximus has been a participant in the 2019, 2021, and 2023 Olympic Games and the 2018, 2020, and 2022 IDU Football Championships. On the international stage, Libertas Omnium Maximus generally does well in tennis, track & field, cycling, and some aquatic events.

Education

In Libertas Omnium Maximus, primary education is provided for all Maximusian youth via the nation's public school system, though private academies also exist. Homeschooling is legal, but children undergoing this form of education are required to meet annual educational aptitude benchmarks. Children are generally enrolled in primary school between the ages of 6 and 18, and must complete a nationally-administered summary exam at the end of years 4, 7, and 10 in order to progress in their education. This test is pass-fail and scores are not shared with the student or disclosed to the school. The only exception to this general rule of thumb is that students scoring in the 95th percentile or higher are automatically recommended for "gifted-and-talented" classes where applicable. Students can drop-out of the primary education system and enter the workforce after completing year 10, but they are not considered to have completed their schooling until the end of year 12. Adult literacy rates in the nation are around 97%, and the majority of illiterate and under-literate Maximusians are older citizens who grew up in the Republic's rural north before education reforms of the 1960s set in.

Higher education is neither mandatory nor universally available, though cost regulation keeps yearly tuition dues reasonably low at most institutions. A number of subsidized and private scholarship funds also exist, both to provide financial assistance to those without the means to attend a tertiary institution, and to reward those who excel academically. Each federal province maintains one or more public institutions of higher learning, which generally have very large student bodies but comparatively low tuition. Many public universities, particularly those with a highly-specialized area of focus, are part of the Public Charter Universities systems, granting them access to additional federal funding.

National symbols and holidays

White egret, national symbol of the Republic.

Libertas Omnium Maximus is frequently personified as a young woman named "Justitia," depicted holding the scales of justice, blindfolded, and wearing a forest green beret (associated with republican forces during the Civil War). Seabirds have long been associated with the Maximusian Republic, particularly the albatross and the white egret, the former of which dates back to the Kingdom of Valahandia as a heraldic symbol associated with the Aldheim dynasty.

The Maximusian Republic has two annual national holidays, though most major Christian holidays (in particular, Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter) are also federally recognized and celebrated across the nation. First introduced in 1870, Constitution Day is a public holiday celebrated annually on August 3 to recognize the signing of the Maximusian Constitution. Most Maximusians observe the holiday by attending parades, community potlucks, and consuming melecreme, a unique malt millet-based alcoholic beverage which was cheap to make during the time of the civil war in 1840. Constitution Day is a spirited event designed to give citizens an opportunity to relax and celebrate the accomplishments of their forefathers. The second national holiday, however, known as Heroes' Day, is a much more somber affair, recognizing those who died fighting for Maximusian sovereignty. Community organizations often organize mass-grave-cleanings in veterans' cemeteries and public officials give speeches to commemorate the fallen. Although the day is dedicated to the memory of fallen soldiers, many activists choose Heroes' Day to hold anti-war vigils, refocusing reflection on promoting a pacifist future for the nation. Heroes' Day is observed on the last Monday of March.

A special federal voting holiday is declared for the duration of federal elections, which occur every fourth year (i.e. 1996, 2000) on September 7 or 8 (if September 7 falls on a Sunday), however, private employers are not required to give paid-time-off to employees for observing the holiday.